In face of the growing trend of e-commerce, globalization and mass customization, global logistics management in business operation has become more important than ever. To survive and thrive in the highly competitive global business arena, enterprises have to maintain constant supply with low inventory and rapid delivery. Failure of the carrier in providing sufficient transportation available capacity for the shipment plan of the shipper would cause delay in transit time in the supply chain, thus producing excess inventory in upstream and causing risk of out of stock in downstream. As a result, delay in transit time and increase in supply chain cost will undermine the performance of the enterprise, thus affecting its competitiveness. Hence, problems of transportation cause bottlenecks in the entire supply chain. It is of urgent necessity to enhance the efficiency in transportation so as to achieve the goal of minimizing the supply chain cost.
In recent years, the change of EMS corporations from BTF to BTO, CTO and TDS has significantly reduced the order lead time from a month's time or longer to between 5 and 7 days, and even the shortest of just 2 days. Hence, 98% of the order placement can be delivered to the end consumers within 2-3 days. Closer collaboration between different parties in the supply chain can ensure smooth transit of products, thus eliminating inefficiencies and decreasing cost.
This research is a descriptive case study on the application of CTM to business global logistics. In-depth interviews conducted with respondents from multinational electronic manufacturing service corporations and transportation logistics service providers reveal that 3PL service providers play an important role in global sourcing of multinational corporations. Integration of CTM and ERP/CPFR using IT can facilitate intra- and inter-firm information exchange. Hence, more efficient transportation capacity planning can be achieved and prompt delivery can be made within the shortest time possible, thus enhancing the quality of service and gaining competitive advantage in the global market.
With the development of e-commerce and reengineering of the supply chain, CTM, with the benefits it can bring to different parties involved, will certainly become an important strategy in business global logistics. To follow the inevitable trend and to reap the benefits CTM promises, small- and medium-sized transportation logistics service providers should enhance their application and capability of IT. Large international logistics providers in Taiwan have been increasing their budget for the development of value-added e-logistics services. Along with this, the government of Taiwan has also devoted great effort to promoting e-logistics in order to enhance the competitiveness of the enterprises in the international business arena.